When high class hooker Nicole is kidnapped from her brothel, Rich businessman Hugo Motherskille hires her ex love Roy Bain to find her. Investigating the disappearance, he eventually finds traces that lead to Dr. Savary, who has produced a strange white powder that's coveted by a race of deformed human beings who live in the underworld in the sewers below the city.
"Underworld" suffers from a painfully obvious lack of budget from the very beginning. This could possibly be due to the fact a good portion of the money has been spent securing the services of Denholm Elliott, Steven Berkoff, Art Malik and Miranda Richardson. Or perhaps it was spent on the B-movie special effects company drafted in to produce the scene where Denholm Elliott explodes in a bargain basement recreation of John Cassavetes's dramatic and show stopping exit in Brian De Palma's "The Fury" (1978). In any case no matter what the budget was actually spent on the small amount remaining provides the whole venture with the most basic levels of production values and it looks unavoidably cheap throughout. The biggest disappointment of all is how totally unengaging it is and this leaves you with a case of by-the-numbers film making on a ghastly shoestring budget.